The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-01-26

THE RIGHT OF PETITION.


Senator Smith has added to his other claims
to notoriety that of trampling on the right of
petition. His arbitrary ruling and conduct in
regard to the remonstrance of jackson coun
ty citizens was more than an insult to them |
it was denial and defiance of a long-estab
lished right and one which, by regularly organ
lied parliamentary bodies and legal presiding
officers is universally recognized. The public
has probably observed that, in carrying out
the role of usurper Senator Smith finds it
necessary to make frequent and offensive use
dent of his position. A man who is legally
elected to Office has no occasion to resort to
the arbitrary exercise of power AS no per-
son questions his right or title to Office, he is
under no necessity of constantly asserting it,
and, as the law defines the limits of
his power, he is not apt to transgress them.
With a usurper or pretender it is otherwise.
Realizing that he has no title, he feels obliged
persistently to assert it. Aware that he is all
the time in the wrong, he is constantly on the
alert to repel supposed attacks upon his alleged
rights This makes him aggressive, and in
stead of being careful of the rights Of others,
as man rghtfully in position of power is,
he is conspicuously regardless of them. A
usurper is generally tyrant The necessities
of his position make him 60 Mr.. Green
Smith illustrates this every day. No man in
his position who felt that he had reached it by
that he represented honorable and honest men,
would make the arbitrary use of power that
he does. His denial of the right of petition
is conspicuous instance. There is no more
interesting passage in our political history
than the great fight and signal victory won in
Congress by John Quincy Adams for the right
of petition. 1t was leading incident in the
early stage of the anti-slavery agitation, VIXEN
Democracy and slavery were bosom friends
and partners, and when together they at
tempted to stihe discussion and prevent the
people from being heard in the halls of Con-
gress. For some years they measurably sue
ceeded in doing this, but when John Quincy
Adams took the matter in hand the wheels
began to turn the other way. TWAS a long
and stubborn fight, but in the end the
| opponents Of the right of petition were routed.
and the principle was established as firmly as
the hills, that the right of petition is inviola-
bly, sacred. When Mr.. Adams began the
! fight Congress had adopted rules intended to
stife discussion-just as the Democrats in the
Senate have done-but in the end he smashed
the rules, ard compelled Congress of slave
holders to receive and treat respectfully petit
| tons for the abolition of slavery, and even
for the dissolution of the Union. And when
the slaveholding Democrats attempted to
pass vote OF censure on him for sending up
to the Speaker petition purporting to come
from slaves, he defed and beat them, and tri-
umphed again. Yet, fifty years later, Demo
cratic presiding officer in the Indiana Senate
exercising an arbitrary power in support of a
| revolutionary plan, dares to DENY the right of
petition, not to slaves, but to freemen, to men
asking not that the laws be set aside, but that
they be observed. The manner in which
Senator Smith did this was as outrage
GUS as the act itself. Without even a
motion that the petition be rejected, he inter-
rurted the clerk, forbade it to be read, and or
dered the clerk to ''fold it up and lay it on
the table," The paper was an expression of
opinion by citizens politically opposed to the
presiding officer, and censuring the course
pursued by him and his party in the Senate.
That it was severe, or even incorporate, in
language has nothing to do with the case; ii
should have been read, and if found offensive
the Senate could have returned it to the send
ers. To suppress it by an arbitrary ruling Oh
the presiding officer was simply adding anoth.
er to the outrages that have marked the re-
cent career Of the senatorial mob.
QUESTIONABLE BILL.
Senate Bill 4S, introduced by Senator
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